Tamil pressure group to lobby against PCs

Chaminda Perera

Tamils for Sri Lanka, a group of Sri Lankan Tamils has begun a process to mobilize Tamil intellectuals in the country and overseas to demand that the government devise a mechanism to ensure equality and more tangible reconciliation among all communities in the country rather than fostering the Provincial Council system which has proven highly ineffective in the last two and half decades. (Please also see page 8, and interview on page 9.)

This organization consisting civil society representatives and representatives from almost all political parities will be launched soon as an alternative to the ‘pseudo representation of the Tamil community that has been in the habit of hijacking the Tamils’ issues for their benefit throughout the country’s post independence history.’

The Tamils for Sri Lanka while stressing that the so called Tamil nationalists are only interested in their political agendas rather than fostering coexistence with the all communities in the country as Sri Lankans, insists that districts should play more proactive role to forge better relations with the State and the locality.

According to Batticaloa SLFP organizer Arun Thambimuttu whose parents were assassinated by the LTTE opposite the Canadian High Commission in Colombo 22 years ago, the government should come forward with a viable mechanism to replace the existing Provincial Council system to promote reconciliation and equality in terms of opportunities for all communities. The Tamils for Sri Lanka wants the government to bring out a devolution system that directly reach the people such as the Panchayat system in India.

“There should be a soft system in place of provincial councils to reach the people”, he said. Thambimuttu added that the real administration should be closer to the people and the district should be a meeting point between the locality and the centre.

He said that it is wrong to deny the people of Sri Lanka of a system which is fully functional and effective due to political reasons. He added that this organization will be launched officially very soon and it would travel to many cities and towns educating the public on the importance of repealing the 13th amendment on which the provincial council system has been established.